The now forcibly retired blog about: Photography, Life and the occasional UFO...

Friday, September 2, 2011

Voigtlander III W

Just look at that baby- those curves, that lens hood, the vertical lugs... Not to mention the glorious, volumptuous 6X7 negs you get from the damn thing. I could even be an art photographer with that baby strapped on my shoulder- dang, at least look like one!

7 comments:

$3000 bucks for a film camera that you can't change lenses on?! Please don't try and tell me the profit margin is so tight they can't throw in a lens shade. Geez. Ya it looks sexy. But 30 years too late. I'm a film guy, but this camera would not convince me to get rid of my Blad. Nor would it convince me to not buy a used Blad, 80mm, 50mm and 150mm for about the same price. Meter! Don't need no stink'n meter.

One of these days, as the golden twilight years approach, I'm either gonna get a Bessa R4M with a lovely dime sized Zeiss 20, 28 and 35- or go completely minimal AND digital with something like a Fuji X100 WA (w/varying aspect ratios). And that'll be it- if I can't get the picture, I just walk on...

I had a Bessa R, get little camera. Sold it. Bought a Leica M3. Greatest disappointment ever. Bought a Leica M5, great camera. Bought Summicron 50mm and 90mm. Nice but no chubby. My good old Nikkormat Ftn was better than all of them. Nikon rocks!

The Bessa & Leica M's are absolutely beautiful pieces of machinery/technology (even if they are miles apart as far as quality). Every time I see either of them, I fall into lust- unfortunately, I damn well know I won't be able to take half the pictures I want with either of 'em- so it's gonna take some doing before I finally take the plunge and spend money I don't have for something I hopefully won't regret.

Well if you think you've got retrotechnolust in a bad way, how about this one: I just bought a Mamiya RB67 Pro SD. A cross between a retirement present, a set of weights, and a prayer for the calm to use it.